


A Grueling Gambit

by YellowMagicalGirl



Series: Redemption is a Very Large Number of Steps [3]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Claire Nuñez Doesn't Escape the Shadow Realm During the Eternal Night, Brief descriptions of food, Gen, I am probably downplaying the symptoms here, Implied/Referenced Torture, Lima Syndrome, Morgana | Pale Lady Redemption (Tales of Arcadia), One of them is more imprisoned than the other so I can tell with this fic as opposed to the last one, Redemption, Solitary Confinement, Unreliable Narrator, but I also don't have a timeline or a set amount of time per day Claire has with Morgana, chained to a wall, do not copy to another site, who is at least TRYING to be vaguely nice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23151862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YellowMagicalGirl/pseuds/YellowMagicalGirl
Summary: Morgana speaks with her apprentice about the nature of their imprisonment.Or, Morgana redemption, an early step out of a very large number.
Relationships: Morgana | Pale Lady & Claire Nuñez
Series: Redemption is a Very Large Number of Steps [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1662949
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	A Grueling Gambit

With a wave of her hand, Morgana summoned a bowl of porridge, a spoon that couldn't _possibly_ function as a weapon, and a peeled hard boiled egg. Morgana frowned slightly at the egg; she had only meant to summon the porridge. Then again, she supposed that her apprentice could benefit from the slight change in diet. Perhaps it would even make the child more amenable, more likely to comply than try and claw Morgana's eyes out.

The food floating in the air next to her, Morgana floated to the asteroid that served as her apprentice's living quarters. When the child could be trusted with such power, Morgana would teach her ways to make the asteroid into something far more comfortable and personalized. For now, however, Morgana knew that actually getting to the _teaching_ part of having an apprentice was still a long ways away. A hole in the asteroid opened, and Morgana strode through it.

Claire was picking at one of her nails, but when she saw Morgana she immediately pulled her knees to her chest. Protect her vital organs with her legs. Perhaps a smart move in the short term, but if the child wanted to escape it wasn't smart for the long run. Not that Morgana wanted the child to escape; a single golden chain connected the child to the far wall of her cell. Only a single chain around the child's ankle, too many chains and it turned into a stress position that would cause _more_ long term damage that Morgana would have heal. It was long enough that the child could walk around, but she couldn't reach the edge of her cell. From where Morgana hovered, she was three feet from the child's reach.

The chain also limited the child's access to her magic. Without her magic, the child couldn't hurt anyone, herself included. Not that Morgana was worried about Claire hurting her; she was the Eldritch Quen! Morgana kept her distance and stripped the child of the rest of her armor to assert dominance over her apprentice. Make her obey. It wasn't working as well as Morgana had hoped.

The child had nearly killed herself through her own magic, though, and Morgana needed her alive in order to escape the Shadow Realm. It was dangerous, though, and Morgana hoped she could convince the child to side with her sooner rather than later. Keeping a wizard cut off from their own magic long enough was _always_ dangerous. The cracks may no longer be as deep or dark, her hair may no longer glow, and her eyes may have returned to the brown they had been for nearly all of the child's life, but eventually keeping away the child's magic would undo the healing Morgana had preformed in order to save the child from her own dark magic.

Claire glared at Morgana. Morgana sent the food floating gently towards her apprentice.

"I'm not hungry," Claire said. The way she eyed the food, especially the egg, confirmed that her words were a lie. Her fingers twitched slightly when the bowl landed next to her, like she wanted to grab the egg or spoon and devour it, but was too prideful.

Morgana rolled her eyes. She got the feeling that she hadn't been such a petulant apprentice, and yet her current plan was to put up with the child and not cut her apart for spell or amulet components.

"Let me guess, you put poison in it?"

"I haven't put poison in your food before." Well, not since Morgana had decided to make the child her apprentice, anyways.

"There's always a first time."

"And _why_ would I do that after I healed you?"

"I don't know, why are you doing _any_ of this?"

"Like I told you when you woke up, the two of us will escape this place together." Morgana didn't fully blame the child, given how disorientated she had been after Morgana had saved her.

"I still don't believe that, considering that you tried to _kill_ me right after you _trapped me here_ in the first place."

Morgana frowned. "I didn't trap you here."

The child scoffed. "Really? You didn't - what, is the solitary confinement somehow managing to effect you worse than me? You literally chained me up and dragged me away from Blinky! _You're_ the reason why I'm stuck here!"

" _I_ didn't trap you here. Your so-called friends did."

"You're lying."

"My plan was not to trap the two of us here together. I only chained you up to prevent them from destroying the Skathe-Hrün. A pity that didn't work. I thought they cared about you."

"Shut up."

"It's funny, they were willing to die for you when you made the portal that connected us together. Though, they only did so after the trollhunter first tried to save you. Maybe after Jim died by my hand, they decided you weren't worth it."

"Shut. Up."

"You and your friends did the impossible to save _him_ from the Darklands, even though you _knew_ you risked releasing Gunmar in the process. It took, what, three weeks? We've been here for almost two months. Your friends may have thought Jim was enough to risk Gunmar's wrath, but they don't think you're enough to risk my wrath. He's the only one who cared about you enough to save you; remember how Blinky and one of my changelings were about to stab you to death just to prevent me from reaching the fullest amount of power I could while I was in your body?"

"Shut. _Up."_

"I've seen your memories. Remember how difficult it was to convince them to actually try to save your brother? The trolls definitely would have just left him there forever. They're going to do the same thing to you."

_"Shut. Up."_

"No one who has even a modicum of the power to rescue you cares enough about you to do so, child. No one, except for me."

_"Shut up!"_ Claire ran towards Morgana, hands curled into fists. She did not stop running when the chain pulled taught. Rather, she _jumped_ towards Morgana, and the chain snapped. Her white hair began to glow and her eyes changed to black and purple. Blinding purple light surrounded Claire's fist and Morgana had to quickly dodge out of the way. Morgana waved one of her hands, and a multitude of chains burst out of the back wall, all wrapping around Claire.

Morgana exited Claire's cell before Claire could once more break free from her bindings, and sealed the asteroid behind her. The walls of the cell were thick, but Morgana flinched at the sound of Claire's frustrated scream. Afterwards a mournful wail came from within the cell, and finally silence.

Well, it seemed that the truth wasn't the key to earning her apprentice's trust. Morgana didn't know what the key was.


End file.
